Endless Reprieve: A Rondeau and Challenge

If I were a cat, I do not believe
That there would be any reason to grieve.
Unfortunately, a cat I am not,
But maybe it’s something that can be taught:
To live with the poise of endless reprieve.

I love how they purr and gracefully weave,
The way that their speech will never deceive,
And boxes would always make a great spot,
If I were a cat.

Life can be simple, though hard to perceive
When so many things are tugging your sleeve,
But this can be learned when actively sought,
A balance between true living and thought,
And there are some things I’d never achieve
If I were a cat.

The Challenge

Instructions on writing a rondeau:

There are 15 lines with 3 stanzas:

A quintet with 5 lines,

A quatrain with 4 lines,

And a sestet with 6 lines.

This is the rhyme scheme:

aabbaaabRaabbaR

R refers to the refrain, which is a short phrase taken from the first line, found in lines 9 and 15.

If I were a cat, I do not believe
That there would be any reason to grieve.
Unfortunately, a cat I am not,
But maybe it’s something that can be taught:
To live with the poise of endless reprieve.

I love how they purr and gracefully weave,
The way that their speech will never deceive,
And boxes would always make a great spot,If I were a cat.

Life can be simple, though hard to perceive
When so many things are tugging your sleeve,
But this can be learned when actively sought,
A balance between true living and thought,
And there are some things I’d never achieveIf I were a cat.

I found this form to be quite tricky, but it is an interesting form to work with. Now why don’t you give it a shot? Your poems will be added to the challenge post along with the links to your blog and poem.

If you like what you read, please follow the link in the title and “like” it there too. 🙂

So long ago, it was a happy time.
My childhood days had seemed so sweet, sublime;
I couldn’t see the trials and troubles met,
The worries, woes, that made my parents fret.
I spent my days at play in warm sunshine.

I had been sheltered from a world of crime
And cities filled with sin and filth and grime.
My innocence had not been shattered yet
So long ago.

But I grew up, and change had come with time,
And playful days became a slow, hard, climb.
My heart became full of fear, shame, regret,
And disappointment from goals never met.
I keep looking back at my life defined
So long ago.

When once you loved me, the sun it would shine
The moon it laughed gaily, the stars align
The blue birds and wrens sang our sweet love song
Butterflies giggled, and they danced along
Oh, yes, when I was yours and you were mine

I think of those days and hope for a sign
Being without sends a chill up my spine
Because nature and I could not be wrong
When once you loved me

I shall wait with the angels on cloud nine
I will lay there and think thoughts quite divine
Like how we shall talk and dream all day long
Knowing now our love is ever so strong
Tell me all we shared was not just a line
When once you loved me

In variations, life is continued.
One’s trash is another’s pleasure imbued,
A head clearing, generating windmills,
Pies to elbows to books on windowsills,
Changing times and generations renewed.

Eternally our speech and hands are cued
To the soundtrack of the finest etude,
Of cells and bugs, of beast and man who kills
In variations.

In seasons revolving, a year is wooed,
In a heart of peace, a mind sets no feud,
By treaties and poems through pixels and quills,
Land and sea, in wake and sleep, if God wills,
Of bean and rose, of cat and man all-hued
In variations.

We can’t change our heart’s choice when it is made
Feelings and emotions cannot be swayed
We cannot stop our heart when it desires
To deny such a love makes us liars
Whether or not to confess it is weighed

Would it change if our ardor was conveyed?
Should we live out our whole life so afraid?
Our yearning heart, it hopes and it conspires
We can’t change!

We share thoughts often with God, and we prayed
A chance meeting! Secret thoughts are betrayed
Love in our eyes, angels singing in choirs
In longing for love, the heart never tires
What joy and what bliss, our fondness we trade
We can’t change!

Who holds the Stars above? Who holds the Sea?
Who has thought of Time and Eternity?
Who makes the Flower dance after it blooms?
Who lets Us feel and fall in love too soon?
Who is the One to case a soul in peace?

I read the Bible enough to believe,
We humans always make foolhardy pleas
Of Him, Who in great Wisdom is consumed,
Who holds the Stars above. . . .

But I know He bears patience perfectly
So every night a silly pray’r I keep:
If He delegates the Suns and the Moons,
Why not ask to be your Bride, you my Groom?
—I like to request that of Elohim,
Who holds the Stars above.

Still I strive to the call of ink,
To keep alive the thoughts I think,
But words don’t seem to like my mouth,
So they hide and don’t come out,
Except with a reluctant slink.

So to the page they fall and clink,
A sad excuse, and so they shrink,
It matters not what they’re about-
Still, I strive.

Would that my words could be in sync,
Could flow serene through time’s fine link,
But they lack grace, an ugly shout,
Or else they are a whimp’ring pout,
Without the weight they need to sink-
Still, I strive.

Do you remember the soft summer breeze
The midnight rendezvous and ecstasies
Before the cold harsh winds of December
Reduced our passions to ash and ember
When once we loved with the greatest of ease

Care free in the days before our crises
We were crazies dancing among daisies
Before the fall of leaf in September
Do you remember?

There was a time when we would tempt and tease
And our feelings would bring us to our knees
Before our funeral in November
The chill air, the shiver and the tremor
Brought about by an emotional freeze
Do you remember?

When I look to the Lord and seek His face
Living to please myself becomes efface
Remembering the wonders He has done
And the sacrifice of His only Son
Safe I remain in His loving embrace
*
His heart and mine do become interlace
No longer do I suffer sin’s disgrace
And live to love with complete abandon
When I look to the Lord
*
Fears no longer overcome or displace
Cast out is the darkness without a trace
Dwelling in the love that compares to none
Basking in the glory of His crimson
Fearlessly proclaiming the truth of grace
When I look to the Lord.
*
Psalm 105:4 (NIV) Look to the Lord and His strength; seek His face always.

What would you feel if I could but show you?
The world changing fast from all that you knew
Cars making fumes that the passers-by choke on
Plumbing bringing fresh water, I don’t con
Don’t turn away there’s much I can tell you

Medicines cure much so deaths can be few
Men travel in space, land on the moon too
Sorry to shock you, I tend to run on
I wish I could show you

The world’s changed much, yet I feel I know you
Stories you wrote, read by so many whom
Then visit your home, see how you had fun
See your letters and the desks you lent on
I wish I could show you

It is about perspective, our world view,
Influencing what we accept as true,
Reality, child of our believing,
With passivity we adopt meaning,
Self-centered focus sets reason askew.

Without questioning data we accrue,
Falsity and deception may ensue,
We are hindered by not truly seeing,
It is about perspective.

Looking at your canvas, upon review,
You will see the colors chosen FOR you,
Will your world be painted while you’re dreaming,
Or with eyes open, your view be freeing?
Cognizance of our thoughts is overdue,
It is about perspective…

“Those who build walls are their own prisoners.”
So Ursula K. Le Guin would tell us,
When I look at the world I see this truth
Where-ever our sense of freedom is skewed,
When our prejudice becomes our jailer,

Ramparts and barriers have hidden us;
We, captive creatures in a crazed circus
Slowly becoming that old spectacle;
Those who build walls,

We can, in large part, blame corrupt leaders
But, for their own power, they must heed us,
We’re our own saviours when we’ve got the gall
But we’re often both guards and criminals
Turning ourselves into the invaders;
Those who build walls.

My heart is yours always, is that a crime?
Am I in exile till the end of time
I’m not here asking you to walk with me
But I’m here begging you to talk with me
I’m all alone, a line without a rhyme

I know I am the one who crossed the line
I was too late when you were right on time
Your smile lit up my dark life painfully
My heart is yours always

I took too long, and I ignored the signs
I thought I could leave you and him behind
How could I have taken so long to see
That you fit all my needs so perfectly
Now, he has your heart, but you still have mine
My heart is yours always

“I love how they purr and gracefully weave,
The way that their speech will never deceive,
And boxes would always make a great spot,
If I were a cat.” – so lovely! There is more then one layer of depth in this gem of a poem and the challenge is a nice add as well, will definitely look into it when I am done with my vilanelle. 🙂

I am always amazed at how fascinated cats are with boxes. It’s like they are obsessed with them. I may go find a big box and sit in one just to see what it feels like. Glad you liked this. I look forward to reading your villanelle! 🙂

Another beautiful poem along with teaching the rhyming, the meter, and all the other good stuff we learned in college and then taught them to our students in college. However, the way you say it, is a lot more fun and doesn’t make you feel that someone is teaching you something so valuable in poetry. Thank you…

Reblogged this on Poetry Perfected and commented:
This is yet another wonderful post that teaches you how to write a poem – specifically, a Rondeau. Cubby is wonderful for putting these posts together. I hope she doesn’t get mad that I keep re-blogging her posts! 😉 Thanks, Cubby!

I’ve wandered along these same lines (of thinking to be a cat), but never managed to give in for the reason of your last lines: “And there are some things I’d never achieve, If I were a cat.” The refrain brings this around nicely! (But then again, if I were a cat, I would not think of achieving outside my realm, almost every cat I’ve seen and known looks like they are achieving) Wonderful wandering poem Cubby! 🙂 Great form, I will have to make time for this one!

Too funny–I do love that you’re “easy”, no homework “due by” date–those are the best challenges, and Friday nights are good (unless I zone out in front of the TV). If I get my 2nd wind, who knows what might happen!

Cubby, I can’t believe you have only been writing poetry for seven months, four of them just recently! It must feel so good to know, it would seem, you have a natural, wonderful talent for writing your poems. I love reading them as many others do, they make the day brighter!!

And you do Cubby! In ways your can’t even imagine! I admire what you do and you sure do have a talent for both writing and teaching others. I have been saving the instructions you are posting and will try them!! Thank you so very much!!

I’ve only been following you for a little bit, but these challenges are brilliant! (And Endless Reprieve made me think of the cat in Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle. Which is a brilliant book, and the cat is a brilliant character, just like your poem.) (I used brilliant far too many times just now…)

Did I do this right and would you mind letting me know if it makes sense to you before I post it?????

It is about perspective, our world view
Influencing what we accept as true
Reality, child of our believing
With passivity we adopt meaning
Self-centered focus puts reason askew

Without questioning data we accrue
Falsity and deception may ensue
We are hindered by not truly seeing
It is about perspective

Looking at your canvas upon review
You will see the colors chosen FOR you
Will your world be painted while you’re dreaming
Or might another vantage be freeing
Cognizance of our thoughts is overdue
It is about perspective…